#findacure bunchies ride for Tilly

Brisbane Retail Leasing Executive Kyle Swain will head up a bunch of more than 60 cyclists through city streets early this Sunday 12 June to support children with cancer.

Kyle wants to make people aware that childhood cancer is different to adult cancer and seeks community support to fund research specifically to help kids.

The group called “#findacure bunchies” aims to raise $25,000 for the national charity, The Kids’ Cancer Project which is dedicated to childhood cancer research and funds more than fifteen projects across Australia.

Kyle 49, started the bunch rides with a group of close cycling friends after his daughter Tilly was diagnosed with infant acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in 2014, at just eight weeks old.

Two year old Tilly, the inspiration behind the "#findacure bunchies"

After being given only a very small chance of survival on diagnosis, Tilly is now a healthy and energetic little two-year-old and remains in remission following intensive treatment. Tilly’s parents Kyle and Carmen, and her 5-year-old brother Jock whom she absolutely adores, are looking forward to celebrating the two-year anniversary of Tilly’s transplant and live for the day when she is five years in remission and considered “cured”.

Tilly spent 211 days in hospital including two separate stays in paediatric ICU, five separate one month cycles of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant at just eight months of age requiring 38 days in an isolation room over Christmas 2014.

“We’ve had ups and downs since her treatment finished in early 2015 and we know she’s not out of the woods yet,” Kyle said.

“We want to be part of helping to make the journey a little easier for other children and their families by supporting research being done to find better treatment options to get the children into remission with minimum long term side effects. I’m extremely hopeful around some of the current research – it just needs funding and we know we will get results.”

Joining the pack is Dr Chris Fraser, Director of the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital (LCCH) and Dr Andy Moore, paediatric oncologist at LCCH and head of the Childhood Leukaemia Research Laboratory at The University of Queensland Diamantina Institute.

At the start of the ride, Gasworks Plaza

“Childhood cancer is the leading cause of death of Australian children, by disease,” said Dr Fraser.

“Diagnosing a child at 8 weeks’ old is devastating for all concerned. We do our best with what we currently have and rely heavily on research to treat children, like Tilly.“